Comparisons are Onerous

I've often said, if you could pick Hobart up and put it somewhere down on the Mornington peninsula, that I would happily live there. I'm tempted to make the same comparison with Esperance but have stopped a little short of following  through with that thought..
The thing is Esperance wouldn't be itself if it was anywhere else. I can imagine all the development, high rises sprouting up like dandelions on a spring lawn. There would be more people for a start, more traffic, more McDonalds, less parking, more meters.
There is plenty of room in Esperance, the beaches go on for ever. The most popular beach with the locals is not the town foreshore one, but one that is about six kms away called Twilight beach. See what I mean, plenty of room. Esperance also has one of the most scenic bike/walk paths in the world. (rated in the top ten) It has an impossibly long and curved jetty that couldn't possibly be filled by the town's people and tourists.A fat Sea Lion  hangs around (always there) the fish cleaning station, there's plenty of room for him there too. The main shopping precinct languishes over two or three criss crossed streets, with no sense of purpose of flow or planning for neatness and conformity, once again plenty of room. There is a curious lack of urgency around the place, maybe because in essence it is a country town, it's just a weird feeling having it on the beach. There's a rail line and a road that brings train and b double loads of minerals down to the port, which is on the main fore shore beach. I was struck by how clean and clear the water was around this port. Thereis this swimming area with one of those floating pontoons that the kids use which is close to the port, yet again plenty of room for every one and every thing. I like the fact that Esperance is a long drive away from Perth, other wise it would turn into a Lorne or a Torquay.

Alana and Glendon on a photo shoot!



What! You still here.

what are you looking at

                                                                           

                                              Glendon n Rachel                                 

My good friends Glendon and Rachel have caught up with us at long last. Alana and I have had the pleasure of their company for the last week or so. We went back to Cape Le Grand, rode our bikes around town, did a bit of frolicking in the sea and shared some meals together at night. The ukuleles have been out, we've been going over some old tunes and playing a new one by Amos Lee (check him out on you tube) called "Sweet Pea". We all have been humming and singing it during the day. It's really catchy and gets under your skin.



The famous Tuesday night bike rides are still on, only it's been every night with Glendon and the uke.

So while I've come to the conclusion that Esperance should stay exactly where it is, I've been able to have a bit of home over here with me. May the Tuesday night bike ride sessions continue.

PS. Back home on a Tuesday night I would go with Glendon on a bike ride as a regular thing, over the last few years there has been hardly any riding. We mainly catch up and play our guitars and ukes, but we still call Tuesday night, Bike Ride Night.



                                         Alana ripping out some nice chords!                                 

Good Company, Good

 food and a cheerful Red!

"And that's my b(p)osition on the matter"

Friendships, more amazing stuff and some much needed girl time!

I've found a rare opportunity - alone around camp for the morning while Mike goes off to an antique bulldozer show with Glendon (explain soon) here at Esperance. We've been here over two weeks now, just relaxing and cruising and enjoying staying put for a while.

You really know some serious disconnection is happening when you don't even think of the internet for days and days. Just being in the present in this beautiful part of the world. But as we are getting ready to pull up stakes and head on again, we thought we should update our travel log and fill the rest of the world in (our world at least) on what we've been up to.

We've had the great pleasure of spending the last week in the company of our good friends, Glendon (antique bulldozer lover) and Rachael, who after many stops and starts, made it across the country in time to spend some time with us before we each head off in search of our respective adventures.

In the last week we've had many a happy hour and many a meal together and managed to take in the Anzac Day footy match over some beers at the local (where my team beat Mike's team by one point). We've also been swimming, snorkeling (Cape Le Grande again), cycling and playing uke together (I finally took mine out of its case and can play almost two songs now). And Rachael and I have had some great girl time too (having coffee and cake and going shopping), which we both appreciated very much.

Anzac Day footy match at the local

Lucky Bay, lucky people!

The jam

Esperance lies due south of Norseman, a town that marks the end of the Nullabor. During the crossing we decided to visit Cape Le Grande National Park (east of Esperance on the coast) before we set up camp here, and wait while the Easter holiday makers were done with Esperance for another year. We came into town, got supplies, scoped out the caravan park and booked ahead, then headed for Lucky Bay.

You know I love words, and feel I can string a sentence together okay, but I really do find it hard to put words to a description of the Cape Le Grande National Park and the three bays we visited while there (Lucky Bay, Thistle Cove and Hellfire Bay). The three days we were there the weather was perfect - warm, sunny, with little wind to speak of, and then lovely cool nights for sleeping. After setting up camp, we made our way down to the foreshore where kangaroos laze on the sand and on the weed that gathers at one end of the bay. There stretched before us was a perfect aqua, crystal clear bay with white fine sand stretching around to the rocks at the eastern end of the bay. We walked all the way round (a bit of a hike) and found a small baylet where we swam and frolicked in the pristine water. We felt as though we'd been transported to a magical land where great rock formations rose out of the water in the distance protecting the bay from the southern ocean. The rocky islands off Cape Le Grande form the middle reaches of the magnificent Recherche Archipelago that stretches from Cape Pasley in the Cape Arid National Park to Butty Head west of Esperance.

I know we will probably say this over and over again before our trip is done, but so far, Cape Le Grande stands out as one of the most beautiful places we've seen.

Lucky Bay x3

Thistle Cove

Thistle Cove

Some of the locals

Hellfire Bay

On the hike from Lucky Bay to Thistle Cove







Roadkill! (Alana's Nullabor reflections)

We rose before dawn and watched it come up over Streaky Bay - a quick tea and toast, then packed up the van - heading for Ceduna to get supplies before hitting the Nullabor. The weather forecast was for 35 and we were keen to get some ks chewed up before it got too hot.

While on the Eyre Peninsula we had travelled through Barngala, Nauo Barngala and Wirangu country and were heading into Mirang country, through Yalata Aboriginal land driving almost parallel to the vermin and dog proof fence.

The country we were travelling through holds powerful ancient and recent mythology - stories have travelled across this great plain for millennium and been handed down to generations. My mother crossed the Nullabor in the early-mid fifties with a current boyfriend of the day. Suffice to say that they parted ways after that trip (those long, hot, arduous miles will do that).

Those days there were less roadhouses and opportunities to get petrol and water, the road, while sealed, was not wonderful. Cars had no air conditioning and were not made as well as cars today. Mum insisted we carry an extra fan belt and extra water. I had to keep reassuring her that our trusty Fiat Ducato was in A1 condition and our fresh water tank holds 85 litres. She wasn't convinced.

Our first day was a stinker and each time we stopped the flies headed straight for our eyes, ears and mouth - lots of them. But despite those annoying pests, we finished the day in high spirits.

The vast flat landscape initially stretched to the horizon as a blue and red canvas (salt bush, blue bush and red dirt) for miles and miles, gradually changing vegetation as we travelled west.

The proceeding days cooled to the mid 20s and the nights were perfect for sleeping. The sunsets and sunrises were beautiful.

The camaraderie we experienced was heartwarming and surprising. I guess we were all in it together on our respective treks across this frontier. We loved every moment of the crossing.

I remember those long drives on holidays as a child and later as a parent trying to find things to amuse. Eye spy was a good one - but didn't suit the Nullabor at all - S for sky and B for bitumen with the odd C for caravan was a bit boring, and there were a serious lack of yellow VW bugs to count. So I started a fauna count. On one side was any live animals we saw and on the other side was the roadkill. Quite depressing you might say, but I bet some wild-life expert somewhere would be very interested in my Nullabor fauna statistics.

The list below is four days counting (give or take the odd hour here and there when I was busy enjoying the trip and ignoring fauna completely)

Live animals:

sheep - lots around Ceduna
dogs - a few here and there
cats - one feral on the Ceduna road
birds - many kinds and lots of them
lizards - I pygmy mulga goanna and one shingle-back
crows - main bird on the Nullabor - all over the place
emus - 3
hawk - 1
roo -1

Roadkill:

emus - 4
lizards - 1 blue-tongue
sheep - 1
rabbits - 2
cats - 1
camels - 1
eagles - 1
roos - 77 (yes it was horrible)
crows - 2
wombats - 1
indescribable - too many to mention and yes, yukky, very yukky!!





Living on the Edge

Alana and I are holed up at our latest "Camp Convivial" in Esperance. We will be here for two weeks recovering from our arduous and adventurous trip across the Nullabor and Cape Le Grand National Park.
After leaving Streaky Bay about 12 or so days ago we hunted out the local Foodland in Ceduna and gathered a few supplies before venturing into that great bit of road that's tattooed in to most Australians consciousness, the Nullabor.

Last time I came across this way was 28 years ago, in a rusty (I mean trusty) Datsun 120y. So it was a real pleasure to share this time with Alana in what we call our mobile holiday house or "Wheel Estate".
We took a leisurely 4 days to cross, with many highlights. After spending the first night at the Head of the Bight car park we struck out for - well we weren't too sure, just generally in a westerly direction. We had our eyes peeled constantly left looking for a vantage point over the Bunda Cliffs when we came across one of these such spots.

There was this little rest area by the road side with a little road track leading down to the bluff. We saw three vans parked near the edge and thought this is a good spot to take photos of the cliffs. As we ventured down to the cliff two of the vans began to circle back to the road, while the third van looked more settled, the obligatory two chairs and table outside the van's door  indicated this.
Alana and I looked at each other and after much vacillating decided to pull up for the night, even though it was only 2.00pm.

We parked our van a respectable distance behind the caravan in front of us which was a short kick sprayed off the side of a boot away from the edge. We rationalised that if the cliff edge eroded, at least the van in front would go first.
We set up our overnight version of "camp convivial" and took a tentative walk up to the cliff edge noticing as we scanned left then right, how under cut some of the edges were. The sea below foamed and furied itself at the base of the cliffs. The blue of the ocean was endless and looking out over the southern ocean you knew the next stop was Antarctica. Just a gaze over the ocean to the edge of the world.

We walked back to our van noticing a man's head under the bonnet of his car, doing a bit of running maintenance I guess. His name was Andy and his wife Cynthia was inside the caravan keeping away from the flies. After a bit of a chat we went snap happy with the cameras and settled into late afternoon views of vastness and awesomeness washed down with two or three mid strength beers.

Alana started to prepare some vegies for dinner and I set up the portable bbq in readiness to blacken up a couple of steaks. The wind struck up a bit and I was picking up the bbq and dodging the wind all the way round the van. I first went one way, set up the bbq, a gust of wind came up, so I picked the bbq and went in the opposite direction around the van. I did this for about six times trying to stay out of the wind's way before I settled on a position I could cope with. As we were having dinner we were getting a bit concerned, wind gusts were whipping up quite a fury every now and then. We thought this sounded ominous, both of us thinking any minute now a howling south westerly would blow us over or heaven forbid over the cliff, caravan in front of us not withstanding.
It should have been an easy descion to make, but Alana won't mind me saying this, we are both basically lazy sods. The thought of packing up was doing serious battle with our thoughts on mortality. We both looked at each other and calmed down internal wise. A new gust of wind blew up and we both looked at each other again with higher raised eyebrows and slightly more pained look across our faces.
I wished the wind would go away, but thought we should stay. I say to Alana " look Love if you want to go I have no problem with that". In my mind I'm thinking 'I'm not the one over reacting' and although I reckon we should move, I didn't make the call, so if it ends up being a silly call, it wasn't mine.

We were feeding off each others anxieties when Alana comes up with a conundrum breaker.She said we should go knocking on  Andy and Cynthias door as they seemed like more experienced vanners, to see what they thought. I said "what a good idea" and proceeded to stand right behind Alana as we went knocking.
They invited us in, we told them of our concerns and Cynthia says "well it seemed like a good spot earlier on, but how can you tell what the weather is going to do, mind you, in all the times we have camped on these bluffs we haven't seen it as windy as this, besides if we pack up where are we going to get cover out on this stretch of land". I thought fair enough, but at least we could be further back from the edge. Andy chips in with "your van's anchored by it's wheels on suspension, Your van has a high long profile, so it gets buffeted about more than my caravan". A gust of wind comes up and shakes the caravan just as Andy finishes his sentence.
They ask us to stay, join them in this game called rumy-cube or something sounding like that. It's a cross between gin-rumy and dominoes.We have a good time with them, finding out a little bit about each other's lives. Alana and I forget about the outside elements and were very much appreciative for the company.

Later on as we lay in bed, being buffeted about by the prevailing gusts of wind. I take Andy's musings on our vans suspension and high profile to sleep with me and drift off to sleep extra close to Alana.

We wake up to a perfectly still and sunny morning, looking at all that vastness and awesomeness.

PS  the author may or may not have taken a bit of poetic licence with the above narrative.

There is only one Alana



Alana beautiful one day!

Still bloody beautiful the next!

South Australia odyssey ends.

After 65 days sojourn in SA, we finally crossed the border into WA around 500 ks into the Nullabor Plain.

We have enjoyed discovering the many faces of SA, from our early days in Robe and along the Coorong and the coastal towns on the Fleurieu Peninsula, to the not so big smoke of Adelaide and the scenic Adelaide Hills where we spent such a great time with Sophie and Tim and their children. Then on up north to the doorstep of the outback, including the Flinders Ranges and the awesome experience of flying over Lake Eyre, down to the rugged southern tip of the Yorke Pen. with its wild ocean beaches pounded by the powerful southern ocean, to the gentle fishing villages of Coffin and Streaky Bays.

These are the things/words that come to mind when we think of our stay in SA:

Arid wide landscape
red dirt
bluebush
windy
paddy-melons
rural for-sale signs
saltbush
saltmarsh
saltlakes
salty
kitch
sparse
old limestone buildings
great pubs
bygone era
English
German







Thanks for a great stay South Australia, WA, here we come!!!